Vietnam prices may rise 1 percent this month, official says

Vietnamese consumer prices may rise about 1 percent in September over August, a government official has said. 

Lower global prices of petroleum products, rice, and steel are contributing to slower inflation, a Vietnam Investment Review report quoted Hoang Tho Xuan, director-general of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s domestic market policy department, as saying.

Consumer prices in Vietnam rose 1.56 percent in August from July, according to the General Statistics Office in Hanoi.

A bumper rice harvest should help keep food prices under control in spite of storms and flooding in some areas, while cement prices in some southern provinces have declined, the report said.

Fighting inflation will be the top government priority through the end of the year, Xuan said.

The State Bank of Vietnam said on August 29 that it would maintain its benchmark interest rate at 14 percent for the next month, as part of a “tight monetary policy in order to help curb inflation.”

Thanhnien

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